Harold (Buddy) Pope's Blog

When it’s time to list your home, you probably have two main questions in mind for your real estate agent. The first is how much can I get for my home? The second is how much commission do you take? Obviously, you want to get the most money in return for your investment.

Many sellers hire the very first agent they meet and this isn’t necessarily the right process. Selling a home is a huge undertaking. As a seller, you’ll want to dig a bit deeper in order to find the agent who is right for you.

What Experience Do You Have?

It sounds like such an obvious question, but many sellers fail to ask their real estate agents what kind of experience they have. Homes are very expensive business transactions. You want someone who has some experience under their belt to help you get the most bang for your buck in the sale of your home. While there’s no amount of experience that’s “required,” your agent should have some experience selling homes. The ability of an agent to handle deals is very important.

How Will You Market My Home?

You can’t really sell anything without some kind of marketing efforts. There are many different ways to market a home including direct mailing, online advertising and sending the property to the MLS for wide search availability. It’s important that your real estate agent knows how to market a home.

How Will We Communicate

This is an important question. You don’t want to hire a real estate agent just to find that they are often unavailable and leaving you wondering what’s happening in the sale of your home. In this age, it’s important to remember how many different ways that we can communicate. There’s e-mail, texting and of course old fashioned phone calling. You want to make sure that the agent you choose to help you sell your home will be open to communicating in the ways that are most convenient for you.

Will You Be Representing Both Sides Of The Transaction?

Agents have the ability to represent both the buyer and the seller if the buyer doesn’t have their own agent to represent them. This is normal and expected especially in special cases. Dual agency is possible and it is legal. However, sometimes you may want someone who is purely “on your side.” If an agent is getting commission from both transactions, you may think it’s hard for them to be working for both the buyer and the seller without trying too hard to make a deal. You don’t want your best interest to be compromised when you’re selling a home.